The Hub’s study tours give farmers, researchers, and consultants the chance to learn directly from other farmers who are adapting to a changing climate. Seeing real farms and real decisions in action is one of the most effective ways to spark new ideas and encourage practice change.
These tours bring Western Australian participants together with peers from across Australia. Even though different regions farm differently, they share similar challenges and opportunities, such as climate variability, remoteness, new technology, and the need to adapt to change. By visiting farms and trials, participants see how others are building economic, environmental, and social resilience in their businesses and communities.
A key strength of the tours is the informal, peer‑to‑peer learning that happens along the way. Conversations on buses, in paddocks, and over meals help build strong relationships and open the door to honest discussions about what works, what doesn’t, and what’s worth trying back home.
Benefits to participants
Participants consistently report that seeing different farming systems firsthand helps them think differently about their own businesses. Many said the tours gave them confidence to try new ideas or refine existing practices.
In the 2025 study tour survey, ten of eleven respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were likely to make, or seriously consider, a practice change. Examples included:
- Using soil moisture probes
- Trialling virtual fencing
- Improving record‑keeping
- Investing in value‑adding
- Improving pastures and ground cover
- Adopting broader systems thinking
Past study tours
2025 – Victoria and Tasmania
This week‑long tour explored contrasting agricultural landscapes, from the vineyards of the Yarra Valley in Victoria to mixed farms and dairies in northern Tasmania. Participants visited enterprises that have adapted creatively to shifting rainfall, evolving markets, and changing technology.
Highlights:
- Viticulture: resilient vines and smarter water use
- Livestock: genetics, pastures, and drought readiness
- Dairy: automation, welfare, and value-adding
- Cropping and mixed farming: diversity as a defence
- Horticulture and AgTech: technology with purpose
- Processing and market innovation
- Community resilience: the human dimension
2024 – Drought Resilience Showcase field tour
The Hub’s Drought Resilience Showcase was followed by a field tour, offering firsthand insights into the Hub’s activities and partnerships across Western Australia.
Highlights
The tour included visits to three demonstration sites showcasing the following projects supported by the Hub:
- “Digital Edge: Next generation agribusiness analytics for the Eastern Wheatbelt” and “On-farm water demand” with Dr Julia Easton, Centre for Crop and Disease Management, Curtin University
- “Sustainable transformation of waste from the potato industry into novel feedstock” with Nick Stamatiou, Whole Green Foods
- “Implementing improved vineyard floor management for premium grape production in a warm and dry Mediterranean climate” at Estates, Henley Brook.
2024 – South-West Western Australia
Following evokeAG 2025, this two‑day tour travelled through the Wheatbelt and South-West, highlighting the region’s water‑management challenges and the innovative solutions emerging through Hub projects.
Highlights:
- WaterSmart Dams demonstration site
- Soil moisture monitoring in an apple orchard
- Winter cover crops to preserve moisture in a vineyard
- Biodegradable spray‑on mulch trial in carrots
2023 – South Australia
Co‑designed with the SA Drought Hub, this tour showcased practical strategies for managing seasonal variability in broadacre cropping systems.
Highlights:
- Cropping without glyphosate
- Germ plasm trials for drought resilient traits
- Predicta B herbicide resistance kit demonstration
- Trials on nitrogen, time of sowing for canola, drought and salinity germplasm, frost, soil modification, and mixed species pastures
- Whole farm diversification including an AusMeat accredited lamb feedlot – integrated with cropping for feed to finish lambs and recent diversification into firewood to spread risk and help employ more staff
- Plant Accelerator® research greenhouse facilities, for high-volume plant growth and analysis, at the University of Adelaide’s Waite Campus
News
- Article, Innovation Agrisolar, Study tour
- Media Release, Study tour
- Article, Innovation DPIRD mulch, Innovation UWA, Study tour, X-Hub DPIRD soil moisture
- Media Release, Innovation DPIRD mulch, Innovation UWA, Study tour, X-Hub DPIRD soil moisture
- Media Release, Study tour
A group of twelve recently joined the Hub team on tour to South Australia. South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub Project Manager Kellie-Jane
- Article, Study tour
Look and think ‘outside the box’ while viewing new approaches to soil and water productivity, different ways of unlocking plant potential and examples of efficient
Resources
- WaterSmart Dams website – Grower Group Alliance
- Modern soil moisture monitoring – SW WA Hub
- Implementing improved vineyard floor management for premium grape production in a warm and dry Mediterranean climate – SW WA Hub
- Supporting the adoption of biodegradable mulch technology in vegetable and perennial fruit enterprises – SW WA Hub
- Digital Edge: Next generation agribusiness analytics for the Eastern Wheatbelt – SW WA Hub